Dietician Career Outlook

Sep 30, 2010

Are you thinking of becoming a dietician? This interesting career allows you to work with individuals and groups to help them eat healthier. You can plan meals, supervise preparation, teach healthy eating habits, and recommend diets for people with health problems. Overall this is a very rewarding career with a lot of variety.

Some dieticians even get to oversee larger nutrition plans, such as for hospitals, colleges, and other types of institutions. In this capacity they will evaluate the nutritional needs of the occupants and then develop a nutritional plan to match. They may need to meet with other professionals to establish specific requirements, and will also need to evaluate the results and make adjustments if required.

As a dietician you may work in the community to help individuals adjust their nutritional intake, and to help those who have specific requirements, like people with diabetes and heart disease who change their diets to more adequately suit their lifestyle. Other dieticians may work in large care facilities like hospitals or nursing homes to help patients who are recovering from a disease, diagnosed with a disease, or recovering from surgery manage their diet.

Becoming a dietician requires a lot of studying and hard work. To be qualified as a dietician you will usually need at least a bachelor’s degree in dietetics and nutrition. Those who want to be in the top of their field may choose to continue onto a master’s degree and specialize in a certain field of nutrition such as geriatrics.

In 2008, there were approximately 60,300 jobs for dieticians. Over 50% of these positions were in large facilities like hospitals, while many others were employed by government facilities – correctional facilities and public health, for example. Still others worked for community services, were self employed, or provided individual counselling.

From that year up to 2018, it is expected that jobs for dieticians will increase by approximately 9% – which is about the average for all jobs in the United States. Besides, dieticians are included in the best medical careers 2011. Those who choose to get an advanced degree or specialized training can expect to have more job opportunities than those who complete the minimum for licensing.

For the most part, growth in this area is expected due to the shifting demographics of the American population, as well as changing attitudes towards obesity. As more health care plans change to cover dietician counselling there will be an increase in demand for qualified personnel to fill these roles.

However, some of the growth in the need for dieticians will be tempered by the use of other types of food service workers – such as food managers, dietetic technicians, and other types of nutritionists. Additionally, many large organizations (hospitals and nursing homes) are choosing to outsource their requirements for food service experts, and thus decreasing the need for in house dieticians. Finally, since insurance plans offer limited coverage for dietician counselling many patients may not complete their sessions as they are unable to pay for the out-of-pocket expense.

On the other hand, many current dieticians are planning to retire, so new dieticians are needed to replace them. If you think that a career as a dietician is appealing to you then take a step in the right direction by meeting with a career counsellor, or talk to a dietician in your area about their job and how they like it. It’s worth a shot and you may just find that this is one career that perfectly fits your lifestyle.

With a bachelor’s degree you can soon land a great job as a dietician and earn a good salary. Get started today, and in no time at all you can start helping people eat better and live healthier.